FACT Archive: Footwurk The Legacy

We pick out some of our favourite videos and documentaries from the FACT vault.

In the 2015 short film Footwurk: The Legacy, Akeem Pennicooke tells a story of dance culture and gang culture in Chicago, starring footwork dancers MikeyRockz (from the Heat Squad crew) and Rashad Harris (from Tribe National). 

Pennicooke immersed himself in footwork to properly understand the community, and made the tracks for the film’s music (under his musical alias, Londy). Despite dealing with the freezing temperatures of Chicago winter and police harassment while filming, the film is both heart-breaking and inspiring.

“I did not want to create a documentary,” Pennicooke told FACT in 2015. “I wanted to create something more realistic, something that mirrored real-life events. I wanted to create a piece of realistic fiction that told the story so many people in impoverished communities have experienced. My goal was to capture the footwork culture and to expose it to a larger audience, all while paying respect to the footwork community.”

Watch next: FACT Archive: Litefeet – Sound of the Subway